Friday, 29 January 2016

Today is my hubby's birthday. This afternoon I will be whipping up a sour cream-fudge birthday cake for tonight's dessert. Yesterday, I went searching for some inspiration for his card. I found this week's CAS(E) This Sketch challenge and decided to use it:

He likes CAS design, just like I do. He will like the clear, bold colours, the overlapping stamping and all the white space. He will also notice the solid stamping and be suitably impressed! lol!

Tuesday, 26 January 2016

Our sponsor this week is Concord & 9th so I pulled out the one set I have from them for their 'adorable' sentiment (surgically altered here).

I stamped it on a panel cut with a MFT Pierced Rectangle die and then used a Memory Box Parker Alphabet U to cut out the letter before sponging it and inlaying it back into the panel. This helps reduce layers and keeps your design CAS.

I inlayed the rectangle into a black panel for some drama.

Now it's your turn! Who (or what!) do you adore! Be sure to check out the rest of the DT for more inspiration:

Monday, 25 January 2016

Well, I'm sorry to say that I need one of these this week, for a family at our church. I looked at various challenges over the weekend to inspire me for this card and landed on The Card Concept's Floral Elegance photo:

Saturday, 23 January 2016

Today, I'm thrilled to be GD at ATCAS! This card won the 'joy' challenge in December (oops, I seem to be in a bit of a 'joy' rut, maybe! lol!) and I was asked to join the DT for the current 'red' challenge.

Where's the red? Here was my CAS theory. By using neutrals for the majority of the card, you couldn't help but focus on the tiny pop of red. Right? Right?

This card makes me happy - it's very CAS but the sparkly berries make it festive in an elegant way.

All of the stamps are old favourites of mine. I have determined that I really should be focusing on developing my skill and style rather than constantly buying new product (as fun as that is!). I can tell you that the Canadian/US foreign exchange rate (worst in 13 years!) is really going to help me with this!

Tuesday, 19 January 2016

Simple, open, clear - those are the Cue Cards so far this year - are you sensing a theme? These are some words we associate with CAS design and you have been knocking them out of the park! We are so thrilled to see that you love CAS just as much as we do!

For my card, I chose Outlines Alphabet from Papertrey. I stamped it with Versafine Onyx and embossed with clear ep, and then I 'coloured' it in with (clear!) Glossy Accents for shine. By leaving the letters 'clear' the design feels very open and simple.

Now it's your turn - there are really many directions to go here - I even thought of 'cleared for takeoff' (my son is really into aviation!). We can't wait to see how you interpret it!

Sunday, 17 January 2016

Congratulations to this week's Splitcoaststampers Featured Stamper - Minnur. Her gallery is full of amazing projects - cards and other items, too! I found it really interesting to look through and try to choose one to re-interpret into a card.

I settled on this one - pretty flowers in pretty colours - enough to make me think longingly of spring:

Friday, 15 January 2016

There are some people at our church who are going through sickness and loss, and so this week I made some sympathy/thinking of you cards to send and to have on hand.

This card puts a feminine twist on the very graphic sketch inspiration. I am trying to sort through my old clear stamps (I used to store them by theme rather than by manufacturer) and identify the manufacturer where I can. I am convinced that these pretty flowers came from a wedding (cake?) set that PTI put out, but I can't find it anywhere. ETA: (Piece of Cake) However, by cutting the little groupings apart, they create a pretty floral cascade.

Thursday, 14 January 2016

A new Stampin' Up set (Lots of Joy) arrived at my house yesterday and I couldn't help but notice/remember the plaid tree. Perfect for this week's challenge!

First I removed the trunk - yes, permanently. I'm not afraid of stamp surgery when I know I'll use a stamp more in its altered form.

Next I stamped the tree twice - once in Real Red, once in Bermuda Bay. I fussy cut them (I know straight lines aren't really fussy, but I realized how die-dependent I have become!) and then stacked them and cut them again, so that I could line them up perfectly and piece the opposite-coloured sides together.

I also performed surgery on the sentiment (from the same set) - it had some little images above and below it and I thought they were not helping the graphic vibe of this strong font. So I removed them - but I made another stamp out of them - I have some ideas for that too!

Wednesday, 13 January 2016

Well I suppose it was inevitable that I would make a card inspired by David Bowie's final album Blackstar:

It's a funny thing, isn't it, to 'lose' someone who isn't really yours to lose. I have been a die-hard Bowie fan since my early teens (that was a long time ago!) and was very sad to hear that he had died over the weekend. On Monday, I was happy to get the album in my hands but sad to think that it's the last time I'll get a new Bowie album.

I chose to make a happy card based on his 'parting-gift' album cover and used Simon's Lots of Stars and an old Michael's sentiment.

Tuesday, 12 January 2016

1. there is lots of open space
2. I the negative or 'open' space of the die cut
3. the card can open
4. you hug with open arms

I actually started with the idea of open arms for a hug and chose this PTI die (love the clean graphic style of the font!). Then I went searching for 'sending warm'. These little words from MFT's Hug in a Mug set (but not from the same stamp - some surgery was required) are perfect because they are similar in style to the "hugs". Non-serif, all-caps - perfect!

I backed my (MFT pierced square) panel onto some kraft cardstock, to warm it up a little from a plain white card (but plain white would have been even more CAS because there would have been no break in the open (or white) space).

Now it's your turn - make sure you check out the DT blogs for more inspiration!

I used the matching dies to cut out a space in the black strip. Then I created masks simply by placing the pieces back into the strip while stamping the rose and leaf images in Altenew Ruby Red and PTI New Leaf. My square panel is cut with MFT's pierced square die.

Thursday, 7 January 2016

Am I the only one finding it hard to get back into the card-making swing of things? I keep making rookie (DUMB) mistakes, the January 'light' makes it difficult to get decent photos and I just feel kind of bleh! I know that the answer is to keep creating, so here's my first try - for this week's Merry Monday challenge (White on White):

I used an old Lifestyle Crafts snowflake - I love that it's so big and thin - it leaves lots of open space on the card. I cut it out of Stampin' Up's Dazzling Diamonds glitter cardstock. One of the fun things about making a square 4.25" card is that you can have something hanging over the edge of the card and it will still fit in the envelope.

Wednesday, 6 January 2016

Right before Christmas, Kate's piano/vocal teacher contacted me to order some music-themed thank you notes. I had been planning to make these notes as a gift for her, but I ran out of time, so she's getting them this week instead.

The starting place for this design was the piano-keyboard edge. I've noticed lately that a lot of very cool designers are putting black and white striped edges on their card fronts and figured by positioning this Waltzingmouse keyboard border (appears to be retired) so that it is stamped off the edge of the card, it allowed me to follow the trend and personalize the card for a musician!

Next, some colour. I decided that the keyboard would be on the inside of the card. I cut the front 1/4" shorter than the back, then masked and sponged a 1/4" strip with 5 distress ink colours (Twisted Citrus, Peacock Feathers, Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry, Salty Ocean).

Finally the sentiment. I settled on Essentials by Ellen Fancy Thanks because it had the musical 'note' reference. Using my MISTI made it easy to ensure that the sentiment was in the same spot on every card. Finally, I added a little eighth-note from my stash of old stamps.